


Across the Cosmos

by magnoliafilms



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Burns, Established Relationship, M/M, Moon, Scars, Sun & Moon, Sun God, Water, underwater kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnoliafilms/pseuds/magnoliafilms
Summary: In any other tongue, Donghyuck was the sun. His hands were worn and cracked from the heat, lips chapped and cheeks always decorated in the most brilliant constellatory freckles.And where Donghyuck was the sun, Taeil was the moon.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Moon Taeil
Comments: 15
Kudos: 50
Collections: THE COLLECTION





	Across the Cosmos

**Author's Note:**

> For Dream Lab Bingo Square: Sun & Moon!

In any other tongue, Donghyuck was the sun. His hands were worn and cracked from the heat, lips chapped and cheeks always decorated in the most brilliant constellatory freckles. 

In any other tongue, Donghyuck had a name. Few knew it truly, but most would find it right where they least expected if they dared look for it long enough. 

And where Donghyuck was the sun, Taeil was the moon. 

Softer, reserved. His name tended to be better known. It’s passed between communities like a prayer. Taeil knows each variation, each shift. He’s always been good at observing. 

Stunning in all of his glory, Taeil would watch as Donghyuck blazed across the sky. As he sent out stallions spun from the very cores of solar flares. Taeil had no room for such shining displays, but he took pride in painting each of the stars every evening. 

In the beginning, there was nothing. An infinite wasteland of indeterminable size. Taeil knew, he had been there. Though he had remained unconscious. Dormant. Waiting. He referred to this state as  _ The Before. _

And then there was Donghyuck. And with him he brought unparalleled warmth and awe-inspiring light. 

On many occasions, they had met on earth. Taking their human forms and residing in expansive valleys and canyons. Never in forests or flammable locations —Donghyuck tended to be a little combustible. 

Donghyuck would extend a hand, and Taeil would take it in his own, tracing the scars and cracks on his palms, the blisters on his knuckles. And just before that heat became too much to bear, Taeil would lift Donghyuck’s hand to his mouth and press gentle kisses to each scab and scar. 

His own lips would blister, would crack and split where his skin met Donghyuck’s. Any closer and Taeil would burn. Often he tried to hold on for longer then he knew his human body was capable and he still had scars from the last time he had tried.

And where his human hands and skin failed him, he still had words. Hundreds of thousands of poems and songs he’d spent over a millennia crafting. Spinning. Perfecting. 

When everything is still and quiet, in that strange space in the inbetween, Donghyuck can hear him. They way he whispers lines and promises into the cosmos. Donghyuck memorises them all, presses them into his heart with every ounce of strength he can muster. 

They can never stay human for too long. There are worlds to run, duties to perform. But they take the moments they are allowed with gratitude. Even in the quietest of times when all they have time for is a mere glimpse of each other. 

The tenderness of hands brushing under a shadowy sky. When their worlds collide into one, Donghyuck’s day fading with the brilliant navy blues of Taeil’s night. 

They meet one evening and Donghyuck’s eyes shine with hope, with a promise. They’re standing in a field of grass, there’s a giant lake a few metres off, and Taeil wonders why Donghyuck brought them here. 

“I have an idea,” Donghyuck says cautiously, as he extends a hand to Taeil. He never touches him first, knows the weight of what his warmth can do, always lets Taeil make the first move. 

Taeil stretches a hand out, capturing Donghyuck’s with a smile. And when Donghyuck dips a toe into the water, he understands. They’ve tried this before. When the world was new and they were hopelessly in love.

Donghyuck had brought an entire pond to the boiling point within a matter of seconds, Taeil’s burns had been so bad that he hadn’t been able to return to his human form for months. There’s scars on his stomach and back that he doesn’t think will ever fully fade. 

Human forms are delicate for a reason. 

Taeil stands at the edge of the water, hand still linked with Donghyuck’s. He’s knee deep now, the hem of his robes swirl in the water and the air around his legs twists with steam. 

“Are you sure?” Taeil asks, he wants nothing more than to trust Donghyuck with everything he has.

Donghyuck winces, he remembers the incident. He remembers dragging Taeil back to the shore, weeping over his burns. The sky mother had taken Taeil away. Forced him back to the moon realm where he belonged. 

They’d been forbidden from seeing each other for decades. Donghyuck had wept, heart aching over the loss of something he’d never properly possessed. Taeil had healed, wounds closing over, and as he waited, he had sung out into the cosmos. Shared his sorrow with anyone who dared listen.

And when they finally met again, Taeil’s scars still pink and fresh, Donghyuck cried tears that hissed and steamed when they landed on the rocks below them. 

Now, he looks up at Taeil, “I’m better now, it won’t happen again.  _ I promise you. _ ”

He whispers these last words softly, and Taeil trusts him with every ounce of his being. 

He steps forwards, tentatively at first. The water swells around his ankles. It isn’t cold as lakes tend to be in this place, nor is it piping hot as he had expected. He shifts closer to Donghyuck and the closer he gets, the warmer the water becomes. 

But it’s bearable. Similar to that first sensation —grasping Donghyuck’s hand, holding him close, yet not enough to burn. 

They’re waist deep now, and the water shifts around them, steam rising from where Donghyuck’s skin brushes the surface. Taeil pushes closer and breathes a sigh of relief when the water doesn’t scorch his skin. 

They move further into the water, shoulder deep now, and Taeil brings a hand forwards to push at Donghyuck’s chest, to run his fingers down his arms. He’s warm to touch, but not burning.

Donghyuck smiles back at him, letting Taeil move his hands over his skin. It feels odd to be so close, and Taeil can practically feel the control Donghyuck is using. Where his face seems relaxed, his teeth are clenched tightly together. 

“Calm down,” Taeil whispers, bringing his mouth up to Donghyuck’s ear, closer than he’s ever dared venture. 

Donghyuck shivers, and Taeil knows it can’t be from the cold. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.” Taeil says firmly. He presses closer and their legs tangle, he can barely reach the bottom now, treading water to keep his head above the water. It’s cooler out in the deeper water and he finds himself clinging to Donghyuck for warmth. 

Donghyuck tentatively loops his arm around Taeil’s waist, leaving room for him to pull free if Donghyuck becomes too much. But Taeil smiles, sees it as an opportunity to mimic the motion on Donghyuck’s other side. 

He lifts a dripping hand out of the water, runs a finger across the bridge of Donghyuck’s nose, across his forehead, drags his thumb over his lips. He grins at the steam that rises, at the heat from the contact. 

He dips his hands back under the surface, skims them over Donghyuck’s collarbones, the divots and slopes of his skin. 

“Let me kiss you,” he asks, and though he tries his best not to seem desperate, it comes out as a plea. 

Donghyuck startles, the water around them grows minutely warmer for a second. But his mask falls easily back into place. He nods and goes easily when Taeil sucks in a breath and pushes his shoulders down, taking him beneath the surface. 

Taeil frames his face with his hands and moves forwards pressing his mouth gently against Donghyuck’s. Taeil takes Donghyuck’s bottom lip between his teeth, its chapped, cracking at the corners. Taeil laughs softly as bubbles pop against his nose, the sound strangely distorted. 

They resurface together and just as soon as they’ve both taken a breath they dive under again, hands clinging to each other. Taeil brings his mouth down the side of Donghyuck’s neck, pressing kisses at different intervals. 

Where their robes fill with water and float around them, they don’t drag them down. 

It’s easy, for once. Being able to hold each other without fear of scorched skin and scarred hands. Taeil kisses at Donghyuck’s scars and knows he won’t burn himself. 

They resurface and realise how late in the evening it’s gotten. Donghyuck’s hair hangs in his eyes and Taeil lifts a hand to brush the strands away.

There’s something pained in Donghyuck’s eyes when he says that they should “probably head back.”

And Taeil knows it too. Perhaps that’s what makes it hurt the most. That this is something they can only have fleetingly. 

They swim back to the shore, hands linked together under the water. They take their time, Taeil taking every opportunity he gets to adorn the inside of Donghyuck’s arm with kisses. 

When they finally pull themselves free from the water, Taeil can’t help but stop in his tracks. He holds a hand to Donghyuck’s cheek, traces his fingers along the still damp skin. 

“I have loved you for a millennia, My Moon…” Donghyuck says as he stares deeply into Taeil’s silvery eyes. Taeil wonders if he sees his own golden ones reflected in them.

“And I’ll love you for another.” Taeil finishes for him. It’s something they began saying in the early days, when their meetings were little more than brushing hands, whispered promises. 

The sky is a gorgeous blend of night and day. Taeil’s reluctant to pull his hand away, but the water has evaporated and his skin is beginning to warm.

He pulls Donghyuck in —dangerously— for one final kiss, his lips crack against the heat and he smiles through it. And then he disappears —back to the moon realm before the Sky Mother can come and take him away. Before she can punish them both for trying something so risky. 

Donghyuck stays for a moment, flexes his human toes in the human grass. Stares up at the sky as it becomes filled with that navy blue. Watches as Taeil’s stars begin to filter in. And the moon — _ His Moon— _ makes its way into view. 

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/thekeehorse)  
> • [cc](https://curiouscat.me/ghoulhwa)  
> 


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